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Blackburn boss Mark Hughes has urged his revitalised side to set their sights on clinching another UEFA Cup berth after watching them move up to ninth place with a 4-1 win over Bolton.

Two penalties from Benni McCarthy provided the crucial turning points in a typically rough-and-tumble Lancashire derby, with David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen sealing the win late on.

Hughes insists a charge towards Europe is not out of the question – but admits it is going to be his side’s toughest challenge yet, he said: “It is going to take more points to get a European place than it has ever done but we’ll keep going.

The Rovers boss continued: “We’ve got winnable games and if we can put pressure on by taking maximum points hopefully we’ll get where we want to go.

“At the start of the season we had a target of how many points we wanted to get, which was the average of the points needed over the last six years to get into Europe. But this year I think it’s going to take even more.”

Hughes had seen his side roar out straight from kick-off with David Dunn forcing a save from Jussi Jaaskelainen within 30 seconds, and McCarthy hitting his first spot-kick on 23 minutes after a foul by Gretar Steinsson.

Unlike the second penalty which would gift Blackburn back the lead in the second half, Bolton boss Gary Megson had issues with the way Dunn appeared to simply fall over Steinsson’s outstretched leg.

Megson said: “I’ve seen it and it obviously wasn’t a penalty.

“We have no complaints about the second penalty but we have a lorry-load of complaints about the first one.”